Tuesday, April 21, 2009

This is my favorite quilt. I had so much fun hand appliqueing it. It's called "Welcome to the North Pole" by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins.

A good friend taught me to applique and we each made this wall hanging. We started in March 2003 by selecting the fabrics for each block and placing them in ziploc bags. Our first block was the "North Pole Carryout."

The window panes were a pain!

The "Sprinkles Ice Cream Shoppe" was next. I renamed it "Nessa's Ice Cream Shoppe" for my granddaughter. This one was so much fun! It looks like the ice cream is dripping onto the tree. The fabric for the cherry and the white scoop of ice cream came from scraps of Nessa's quilt.

"Nate's Cars and Trucks and Reesa's Doll Shoppe" block was next. It was renamed for my grandson and other granddaughter. The truck wheels are little snaps!

The "Slick Sleds" block was a challenge with the curly roof!

I decided to do the Santa and the reindeer block next. We used a loosely woven fabric for the beard, moustache, hat and sleeve. That took some work, especially the moustache. It's so tiny! Surprisingly, the reindeer antlers weren't as hard as I thought they would be! Can you see Rudolph's red nose?

I'm not happy with the fabric I used on the Reindeer Barn's roof but decideded to leave it. That N took forever!!!

I love the fabric in the Marble Shop! Circles are hard to make round!

We made the "Welcome to the North Pole" block with an elf in green instead of another Santa.

I like the door on the "Elve's Recreation Center". The window panes are getting easier!

I made the "Trees and Reindeer" block next. I love making all the different trees.

The "Stars at Night" block was fun too! They look like they're dancing!

The "Elve's Bunkhouse" was different because of it's shape. This wasn't my favorite block. We were going to use red for the candy canes but the green ones look better. The roof was supposed to be three pieces but we used a print fabric and made it one piece instead.

I love the fabric for the "Mr. and Mrs. Claus's House.' It's seersucker! The little dormer windows were a challenge on this block.

The "North Pole Bakery" is made out of fabric from New York City and the flowers are buttons.

The "Three Trees" block was the smallest, fastest, and easiest block of all.

The last block was the "Royal Toy Works/Candy Cane Factory/Hats and Mittens." I don't know how I kept the white stripes on the candy cane so clean! I think the roof of Hats and Mittens looks like a Hershey's Kiss and don't you just love the door!

The blocks went together a lot easier than I thought they would. I was afraid of puckering or that they wouldn't line up.

I finished the top in one year, then I had to add all the beads and embroidery and then, hmmm, should I tell you how long it took me to hand quilt it? Okay! I finished on May 22, 2005! Hand quilting is definitely not my favorite thing to do, especially since other quilts were waiting to be started!

18 comments:

This a really a wonderful quilt! I love all the details and fabrics. Your story makes me want to go out and read all the books! Well done! (Do you plan to do more quilts based on a book or books?) I bet the children love it!

I do believe that this is the first quilt that went block by block each explained. I started a quilt like this but your FINISHED quilt is much better. And if I ever go back to mine I have some new thoughts thanks to you. Thanks for sharing.

About Me

I'm a library technician and my main job is early literacy which means I get to share my love of books with children 0-5 years old.
I'm a wife, mother and grandmother. In my spare time, I love to quilt, scrapbook, read, garden and spend time with my family.